ALTAN, Cipputi e la Pimpa

Armando and the little dog Pimpa; the metalworker Cipputi; the everyday life of Ugo and Luisa. To the cartoon characters that the public has loved for over fifty years is dedicated the exhibition ALTAN, Cipputi and Pimpa. Il mondo com’è… e come dovrebbe essere (The world as it is… and as it should be), promoted by Pistoia Musei, Fondazione Caript and hosted in Pistoia in the spaces of Palazzo Buontalenti from 25 March to 30 July 2023.

With this exhibition – curated by Luca Raffaelli, in collaboration with Kika Altan – Pistoia Musei chooses to pay homage to the great artist and cartoonist Francesco Tullio Altan (Treviso, 1942) by offering, a few months after his eightieth birthday, a spectacular, varied, and entertaining exhibition, capable of stimulating reflections on the choices that await us if we really want to live in a more humane and respectful society.

With a rich selection of original and previously unpublished drawings, the exhibition also offers play areas for children and features Altan’s characters and animals reproduced in coloured foam rubber by sculptor Pietro Perotti.

The first section of the exhibition, entitled Il mondo com è (The world as it is), hosts cartoons featuring the worker Cipputi and his alter ego Italo, the couple Ugo and Luisa, Trino, Colombo and Ada and others of Altan’s most famous characters. An overview that, with the language of satire, also calls into question historical names in Italian politics, such as Andreotti, Craxi and Bossi.

In the second part, Il mondo come dovrebbe essere (The World as It Should Be), comics beloved in particular by children are exhibited: Pimpa and Kamillo Kromo, together with other unpublished drawings and comics by Altan.

The final rooms house Pimpa’s house reconstructed on a child’s scale, where the youngest visitors can admire the lively furnishings and get to play and colour. A video room with Pimpa cartoons closes the exhibition.

ALTAN, Cipputi and Pimpa. Il mondo come è… e come dovrebbe essere (The world as it is… and as it should be) will involve various spaces in the city and will be accompanied throughout its duration by a programme of educational and cultural activities: games, creative workshops, animated readings and figure theatre performances featuring Altan’s characters.

The exhibition is realised by Pistoia Musei and Fondazione Caript with the support of Intesa Sanpaolo and Conad Nord Ovest, in partnership with Quipos, Coconino Press-Fandango and Franco Cosimo Panini Editore, media partner la Repubblica, with the collaboration of Lucca Comics & Games.